SVG Map - Tile Map Without Javascript

Taro Matsuzawa (Georepublic Japan) with Ko Nagase (Georepublic Japan)

09:00 on Saturday 21st September (in Session 49, starting at 9 a.m., EMCC: Room 1)

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Description: SVG Map implements specific elements and attributes that enable internet browsers to display map tiles directly through the browser's layout engine, supporting dynamic tiling and layering.
Abstract:

In this presentation we will show how the SVG Map technology can display a tiled map without Javascript. Many popular internet tile maps such as OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, etc. use Javascript to provide tiling and layering. But this can cause high load especially on mobile platforms. SVG Map instead implements specific elements and attributes, that enable internet browsers to display map tiles directly through the browser's layout engine, with support for dynamic tiling and layering. The core mechanism of this tile map is the “SVG iframe” element. Depending on zoom level, map layer and viewport the relevant map data is downloaded using media queries. The “globalCoordinateSystem” element allows to define the geographic coordinate system and to describe transformation rules. SVG Map will make it possible to display maps in the browser with SVG files alone, and it will allow to style maps with CSS. While a first prototype has been is developed using Javascript, development has started on implementations for Webkit browser and a Firefox add-on. Because Firefox OS doesn't support add-ons, the native implementation in Firefox browser is also planned. The final aim is to make SVG Map a W3C standard, and discussion has already started in the SVG Working Group at W3C.